A Hippo Story for Mona

borrowed from http://www.travelphoto.net/a-photo-a-day/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/p1070947_500.JPG

My sister in law is a riot.  She picked up my mom's cell phone as I was texting her last night, and started putting in birthday demands for all my immediate relatives.

My brother's demand was very tame, but hers was a pony.  I called him a few minutes later on his cell, and she answered.  I explained that I thought she was too old for a pony, and she responded, "you said I am too FAT for a pony, that's not very nice!"  This went on in the same vein for a few minutes, then we actually talked about the reason for my call.

About a half hour later on Facebook the demand had changed to a hippo!  A few more comments later and I was inspired to tell some stories from my long ago trip to Kenya.  I will not mention monkeys this time, as they have had more than their fair share of posts in this blog lately.

On said trip to Africa, as has probably been mentioned before, but bears repeating, I spent several days on a photo safari through the Masai Mara game preserve.  The facility was based alongside a muddy river that wound through the countryside.  During the long hot days, the hippos would remain in the water, and they are actually much more suited to that environment, given their bulk and buoyancy.

If you click HERE you will see what I mean about how much more graceful they look underwater as compared to having to heave their vegetarian bulk around on land.  If you watched the video, you can see they are mostly walking on the bottom and not actually swimming, but it is nice to be mostly weightless underwater!  That's why I like scuba diving, it is the closest I will ever get to experiencing the weightlessness of space.

So they float/stand in the river all day to keep cool, then at night they lumber onto land and start looking for things to munch on to keep their Rubenesque figures.  The first night we stayed at the camp, I heard a bunch of commotion and mooing just as I was trying to get to sleep.  I guess they aren't very orderly about their exit strategy from the water, and they vocalize their displeasure about the pushing or shoving or hip checks they are getting from their friends, who may be more hungry or rude than they are.

When they are relaxing/snoozing during the day, you mostly see nostrils, ears, and the hump of their back above the water line.  I think the little ones do not have enough blubber to keep themselves afloat, so you might see them laying on their moms, with only 30-40% submerged.

One of the most interesting habits of these huge creatures is that they have a certain part of the river which is designated for "doing their business", if you will.  It is apparently bad form to relieve yourself while you are rafted up next to everyone, so you separate from the group and meander over to the poopy part of the river.  Once there, you position your but maybe 6-8 inches out of the water with said butt facing the beach, and you wiggle your tiny tail back and forth vigorously while getting rid of yesterday's meals.  This distributes the stuff rather than having it all land in the same place.  CRAZY, but it makes sense to them.

One afternoon I was sitting on the balcony of the main lodge, which overlooked the river.  There was a raft of maybe 30-40 animals getting relief from the oppressive heat.  I was probably clicking away, trying to capture that perfect hippo picture (these were the pre-digital days, so I had to be somewhat judicious to make sure I did not run out of film), when the whole group reared up and made a bunch of indignant moos at almost the same time.  It was kind of like a hippo stadium wave.

I have always wondered what caused this.  Did an alligator come down stream and nip at one of the chubby artiodactyl bathing beauties? Did a hippo baby try to get a drink of milk from someone who did not have the correct equipment?  Did someone try to get fresh at the wrong time of the day?  I guess I will never know, but it is fun to speculate.